The Seventh Umbral Era Looms! Let's Play FFXIV

So will you be LPing the "Realm Reborn" version? The potential inclusion of stuff like Magitek Armor and the Crystal Tower have piqued my interest, but I dunno if I want to commit to an MMO yet...

I'll be taking screenshots just in case, but I guess it really depends on how everything shakes out for it. So probably eventually?

I just want an MMO version of the classic Final Fantasies. FF5-style Job system, turn-based combat, random encounters. Is that so much to ask?

I'm reading! It's a bit dangerous for me, because I'm determined to not get sucked into another MMO for ten years, but I need to know what happens!

Just so everyone knows, F'lhaminn isn't wearing any pants or shorts - that's Mi'qote underwear.

Not even joking.



Also, I take back what I said about Thancred sucking. So far he's managed to do a hell of a lot more than Yda and Papalymo did for Gridania's plot. (Still like them more, though...)

Hey, I'm 23! >:(

If he doesn't, I might. I might even be a better choice since I've got a big linkshell to do more interesting things with, and didn't instantly pass crafting and gathering off as a waste of time. (Well, depending on just how much information you guys want. ...Maybe my sheer wall of textiness would not work for anyone.)

Hey, I had a few goals for myself, woodworking is just past where I'm at at the moment:

• Level Warrior to 50
• Level Bard to 50
• Complete the pre-2.0 story missions
• Level a third job to 50 (started on White Mage, got bored and switched to Dragoon. Currently 47)
• Grind out woodworking in the remaining time

So yeah. Even if they rework arrows into quivers to reduce its usefulness, I figure woodworking will be worthwhile when people start wanting to build their houses.

9/28/2012 - And So The Story...Trails Off... aka "The Echo"



Surely he paid no mind when he dropped us off and we were almost immediately attacked. Can't be bothered to hire some part-timers to watch the stables when the cart is out and had to rush back, huh?



Our story thus far. Off to the hospital!



We rejoin the usual crew discussing the events of the last update.



No shit? The man that just attempted murder, twirled his mustache and ran off could be a liar? No!



Niel, for whatever reason, doesn't believe so.



Greinfarr says that Corguevais was wearing Garlean clothing. And seemed to be talking like one from their empire. Shouldn't the captain of the guard have maybe brought this up ages ago? Like the time he was closely tied to a rampaging goobbue attack through downtown Ul'dah? Or the time he was then involved in an illegal mining accident? Or the murder of a random immigrant? This guy needs to be fired.



Master of the obvious.



F'lhaminn suddenly awakes, saying that Thancred would know what ominous threat worse than the empire that Corguevais was warning of.



But of course our illustrious "heroes" exiled him for slander.



"Fuck it, I'll do it myself. Its worked out well so far."



Time to join a search party and look for Corguevais. Who cares that F'lhaminn asked for us to search for Thancred.



Of course we run into a Lalafell who's actually doing what we were asked to do.



And then Thancred walks up out of nowhere. I don't think that actually counts as finding him lady.



He's kind of fed up with the Ul'dahns, but they keep harping on him for information.



He ends up playing dumb to their questioning.



Thancred assumes Niel has decided to use magic to probe the depths of Ascilia's memories, but it turns out that he's instead going to attempt to revive her father. Even though the Thaumaturges just told us that that was impossible.



Greinfarr doesn't exactly agree with the plan, though.



So the whole conflict between Ul'dah and the Garlean Empire is over being able to revive the dead? Seems like a pretty important thing to just be mentioned in passing.

Regardless, Thancred agrees to probe his sources in regards to what threat is on the horizon. He does warn that if the thaumaturges do succeed that the Garleans will most certainly engage war sooner rather than later.



"Thanks, but we don't need your help now that he came to us. See ya!"

I don't know who this lady is, but she's acting awfully familiar. Especially considering the NPCs I've interacted with dozens of times now seem to have selective amnesia about whether they recognize me.



Regardless, we find Thancred again soon enough.



F'lhaminn also shows up, distraught over Niel's plans.



We enter the crypt in which Ascilia's father is stored to find Niel gravely injured.



We also find Ascilia nearby, holding some sort of stone. ~Flashback~



It seems that the stone's power is somehow harnessed in the revival ritual. The thaumaturges seems awfully nonchalant about the whole thing compared to how cold they were to me.



Niel is as personable as ever.



He opens the casket, acts surprised and then gets stabbed in the back!



Well, at least we know it wasn't Ascilia.



We return to find myself and Thancred both passed out in the crypt.



He starts babbling about something called "The Echo" and how I performed it.



He runs outside to find ominous clouds rolling in.



And then fire rains from the skies!



Meanwhile, Niel is dead.



It seems that the fire he witnessed was not something happening currently, but some sort of premonition as to the dangers that Warburton was to warn Ul'dah of.



Suddenly, I come down with a migraine.



I pass out, and awake with Momodi by my side.



It seems the overly-friendly blonde lady wants to meet with me.



With that the mission ends. And honestly, all of the story progression.



You even get an achievement for "completing" the storyline they didn't bother to really complete.



Regardless, we still have some kind of business with Minfilia.



This is some kind of racket, though. The "Path of the Twelve", named for the 12 (technically 13) gods of Eorzea.

Yeah, but I still don't know why we should be giving answers to you, a random woman.



Oh, so its a fancy cult.



Don't mind me, just passing out again.



Suddenly we're back in Minfilia's office, hearing her discuss how their operatives are all reporting that Niel will die in the crypt.



They eventually notice and her Lalafell assistant freaks out. And then we whip back to where we came from.



It seems that she already knew of this power somehow. And this explains why she acted so familiar before, sine she'd already met my "Echo" version before I wandered toward the crypt.



But why me? (And everyone else playing FFXIV...)



It seems that everyone who witnessed the fire in the sky (potentially, maybe) got the Echo.



Blah blah blah divine purpose etc.



Well, I really don't have much of a choice, do I?



So excited.



"So I didn't mention it before you pledged, but we haven't been able to glean much from any of the other Echo users that have been through here for the last 10 years. Never mind the fact that I look like I might have been at most 15 years old a decade ago."



OK, sure lady Professor X.



So I can read and interact but not change the past. So its just brain spying not time travel.



Also, universal translation.



"Oh, and some unrelated fire in the sky stuff. But we don't need to worry about that. Probably nothing."



Only then will mutants and humans live in harmony.



Tataru barges in and asks to record my name in their official records.



They're not only the X-Men, but also Spider-men I guess.



For whatever reason the Path of the Twelve sees to it that members are matched up with an NPC of the opposite sex. For reasons that were never fully implemented (surprise surprise).



Most important steps! Such a shame they do nothing and are likely (if Producer interviews are to be believed) going to be removed / reduced in A Realm Reborn.



But now we wait.



Might as well take a nap.



And now she's ready. Kind of creepy that I chose her without any input on her part.



And there she is, for whatever purpose.

Of course she's flirty.



She doesn't even come with a name! Since she's a cat lady I name her after my cat.



*Sigh*



Seriously?



Seriously creepy.



I assume she means that quite literally.



Even Momodi lays into us about her when we meet up at the Adventurer's Guild.



Yeah, destiny. Except everyone at The Path of the Twelve saw these visions.



She's really into this shit. Eating it right up.



Hook line and sinker on the Twelve's agenda.



OK, sure, whatever.



And then she wandered off, never to be heard from ever again. Seriously.



But at least I got paid.

Next Time: The Immortal Flames

Actually getting to name your NPC is a nice step forward from having to pick a name from a list!

you sure she was a mi'qote? i never saw any ears or a tail

Tail:

Wait, your "final" battle was against Coblyns? Mine was an Elemental... and a bitch hard one.

I'm starting to think I should do a quick runthrough of the other two cities' stories for the sake of science.

Also, I'm pretty sure path companion choices can be either male or female. I'm about 78% sure mine was a girl, even though my character is one too.

(I say 78% because it's a Lalafell...)

Wait, so there might be some more missions from what I looked into maybe? I just have to go through Minfilia instead of Momodi? Good thing they hid her in an instanced area where you've got no reason to go almost ever! So even though I plan to do the first GC update today I might have one or two more missions left in this line.

i think he's just talking about the other 2 city's storys, cause they cant all have rampaging goobues >;p i did a good chunck of limsa's story in the beta... not sure if i ever got a good shot of me using the pirate's gun(another thing not implemented) in the one cutscene

edit: found it

10/5/2012 - The Immortal Flames, Cid and the Seventh Umbral Era

Regardless of revelations about the vestigial storyline perhaps having more to it, we're going to move forward here with part 2: The Grand Companies of Eorzea.



Hall of Flames music

Immortal Flames organization page and monthly newsletter

The Immortal Flames are the mercenary force of Ul'dah. The other two nations have equivalents, but we'll get to those in due time.



Flame General Raubahan Aldynn leads the Flames, though you won't see much of him in the beginning. He's part of the same Syndicate as the other guild leaders (being head of the Colosseum), but he pledges strict allegiance to the sultanate of Ul'dah rather than to the gil in his coffers.

All adventurers are free to sign up for the flames, though you must prove yourself to them. The first mission they give out is to convince a man named Taylor to ally himself with Ul'dah and the Immortal Flames.



He's hesitant to do so, but claims his song may change if I'm also able to convince a man named Urianger, a mysterious man prophesying something called the "Seventh Umbral Era."



We find Urianger in an otherwise desolate location south of the docks.



We find him spewing forth ominous poems.



He's really sold on this Seventh Umbral Era being the end of Eorzea.



Of course we're asked almost immediately to join his cause.



Refusing his plea, he says that we're blind to the coming chaos and then sics a raptor on me.



A ridiculously weak raptor.



Thancred shows up, repeating Urianger's poem.



Seemingly amnesiatic again.



He begins a story about how evil once ran rampant 1000 years ago.



The gods banded together and flooded all those assholes away, though. That was henceforth referred to as the Sixth Umbral Era, implying that the gods have wiped out humanity on a whim a half dozen times now.



Thancred has convinced himself that since humanity caused the gods to be so angry as to destroy us all that we could also instead prove ourselves worth of being saved from the impending disaster. He of course asks us to join in his cause.



Uh...thanks?



We return to Taylor to find him disappointed in us for not being able to drag Urianger in.



He does give us a second chance and prepares a letter for the general of the Flames.



Returning that to the Hall of Flames completes the quest.



And the reward.



The preliminary quest was such a success that the Flames offer me a probationary position as a recruit.



This contract doesn't prevent me from participating in the Grand Companies of the other nations, but that doesn't stop Aubrey from laying it on pretty hard about how much more awesome Ul'dah is than those other backwater nations.



We're given another choice, but its mostly pointless.



And thus I am now a part of The Immortal Flames!

After a quick explanation of Flame Seals (long story short: spend for guild rank ups and exclusive gear), we've completed another quest. Super easy.



Despite the explanation, our next mission is to...have a more in-depth explanation.



And get more experience for talking to her for a bit.



Our next mission (first real one since becoming a recruit) is to break up a Garlean trade blockade near the Golden Bazaar.



Despite being so close to Ul'dah, the Garlean forces are beyond weak. How they made it this far is beyond me.



Forces keep rolling in as I dispatch them, so maybe they were just sacrificing a lot of pawns to make it this far?



Oh, so it turns out they pledge allegiance to the Garlean Empire, but are merely local thugs.



Aubrey is worried about the fact that the Garleans are not only attempting to shut down their land trade routes, but the ones at sea as well.



Part two of this quest involves heading to Limsa to made contracts with weapons dealers.



This involves popping into an instance and just talking to a few NPCs.



So much talking.



Some are a bit more vulgar about it than others.



Another successful mission.



In the meantime, it seems as if the trades routes have been marked as a demilitarized zone.



It seems that Ul'dah is attempting to profit from the impending war and my recent mission has only fanned those flames.



And here's the head of the Garlond Ironworks now.



Pretty boy Cid himself, muttering something about a Meteor hypothesis being true.



None of my business, though. Out the door he goes.



More rewards.



Of course I follow up these rewards with a sarcastic exchange with Aubrey.



I'm urged to go off and try out the other Grand Companies, though I'm going to blow that off for now.



Instead I'll be venturing to the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak to find some missing Flames members. But to do that I'll first need to recruit some party members...

Next time: The Talking Tyrants and the Thousand Maws of Toto-Rak

The runt has the right of it! The last quest in the three nation storylines is the one at about level 13, involving a fight against something or other, and I presume both cases have an NPC party rotating in and out so noncombatants have a chance. That's the one I was referring to.

After that, every story converges in Ul'dah for the same Path series.

I find it hilarious that you somehow missed a few missions on the Path, though. Make sure not to waste those experience rewards!

So are all three nation storylines accessible now? Originally you could only do the missions of your own starting nation. I liked being able to experience ALL THE STORIES on FFXI and was very annoyed that XIV wouldn't allow you to do the same on a single character.

10/11/2012 - The Path of the Twelve is Longer than Expected



Returning to the Path of the Twelve I'm surprised to find that there are more missions! That no one bothered to clue me into! Good thing my mission consultant changed from Momodi with no particular indication!

Anyway, I find myself face to face with a Cabbage Patch Sylph upon entering.



So even though Minfilia leads the Path of the Twelve it turns out that she doesn't even possess The Echo. She ropes me into an interpreter job since I was the first gifted member in her line of sight.



It seems the Slyph are worried that "metal ones" are approaching their nests. Going from experience I'm going to have to guess that they're Garleans.



Time for Sammie and I to check it out!



The Sylph are very appreciative for the help.



Before heading out we've got to inform our path partner of the plan. She agrees to meet up at the aetherite plaza in Gridania.



Sammie was out ho'ing it up for some leads. The way they've written this character is really starting to grate on me.



Arriving at Camp Nine Ivies we find some Sylph freaking out. I guess the Garleans must still be wandering around?



They berate us for showing up so late; their nest has already been violated.



It seems that the Sylph were naive and lead the Garleans straight to their nest. Now they're begging for us to save their seedlings before its too late.



You really think I'm afraid of a few soldiers and/or robots?



Sammie, once again, mind in the gutter.



The Sylph say they will stop the Garleans with Conjury, but Sammie isn't so hopeful.



Of course we're given another false choice.



"Really, I'd just go for anything with a pulse."



Our destination is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay up north, through the winding paths of the Black Shroud.



Entering the forest, we find the Sylph leading the Garleans toward their nest.



As well as some ridiculous vertical robot thing that has no good reason to still be standing with how many branches block the paths.



A rare, voiced cutscene! They must have thought this revelation was truly important!



God these tanks (?) are stupid.

I come across my first Garlean. Instead of listening to all the advice I change into my Warrior gear and rush headlong into action!



And proceed to murder him in a single blow!



Seriously, Garleans. Maybe you should send someone other than your trainees to scout out places.



The worst part about this mission (and really, any NPC partner mission) is the terrible AI pathfinding in the current game. Your NPC is essentially the chalice in Crystal Chronicles, creating a mission zone line around your character. If they get stuck on something, or decide they'd rather walk than run you'll just be sitting around waiting and/or doubling back to get them back on track. SO SLOW.



At least I don't have to rely on her catching up to wreck these Garleans.



Eventually we make our way to the Sylph grove.



Rather than attempt to save as many as possible, or at the very least two of them since I've got Sammie around, we're handed a single podling and told to go. I guess between all the other people that finished this mission the next generation of Sylph might be OK?



The path back is the same as out here, only in reverse. Its even less interesting on the way back because I've run out of Garleans to kill.



Sammie is a bit harsh to the Sylph about their nesting location.



Unlike the other beast tribes of the land, the Sylph refuse to summon their primal (aka Summon Beast / Avatar / Aeon / etc). According to Sylph the presence of the summoned primals (one for each tribe) in Eorzea is what drives the beast tribes to madness.



Sammie doesn't think anything has changed with the tribes since the summoning, but the Sylph pretty much tell her she's an idiot in denial.



She apologizes for speaking out of bounds, but pledges herself to the alliance with the Sylph.



It seems there's a bigger threat than the empires, though? Of course there is, there's always a bigger threat.



Some other group of people show up and bully for info and then tell us to run on home.



Sammie gives her 2 cents again. I guess someone has to if we're going to continue to be the silent protagonist.



Sammie decides she's done with all this and heads back for some more afternoon delight.



Returning to the Path of the Twelve.



Another job well done!



And a huge experience bonus for completing it! Hence my nearly naked Conjurer.

Next time: Obsolete Features

wowww

... Airships.

Not. Even. Joking. This is what passes for a magitek airship in Eorzea.

See, it's an airship because of the bat wings. And it is capable of flight. Yyyep.



Also, at lower levels/noncombat classes, you still don't even need that stealth nonsense. Since your Path Companion follows you regardless of where you go, and they literally only posted enemies on the most direct path, you could have walked right around them.

I just noticed the airships look like skulls w/ really long top hats on <,<

Apologies for the lack of updates. This is the final weekend before they backup the saves for transition to A Realm Reborn so I've been busy trying to finish up all that I can before that time.

Do not worry about missed content! All of the major missions are well beyond complete and anything else will just be side-story filler bits.

11/2/2012 - Parley: So Bad Its Gone in A Realm Reborn



We return to Minfilia where she's prattling on about crystals being rare or something. I've literally got 4000+ shards of each element rattling around in my pack at this point.



Rather than going to adventurers for their supply, it seems that the Ashcrown Consortium has been some sort of a go-to between the human cities and the beastmen who have a steady supply of crystals.



Economics really upset Minfilia.



Long story short, I've gotta go take care of some business for the consortium.



This involves doing some mediation between the beast tribes and the consortium members. Their headquarters is in the city of Gridania.



I arrive at the consortium to find Sammie already waiting for me.



We then meet up with the leaders of the consortium, the lalafell Shanga Meshanga and the sylph Troxia. Of course Sammie has an inappropriate comment for all situations.



It seems that the entire operation was Sylph founded, explaining the easy networking between the beast tribes since they are one themselves.



They explain that trade has been more difficult as of late because of the appearance of primals (aka avatars, summons, aeons, etc).



It seems that the crystals once used in trade are instead being used as essentially "god fuel" to keep them rooted in the physical realm.



On top of that, the direct influence of their gods has made the beast tribes significantly more aggressive, going so far as to injure the pacifistic sylph.



Sammie is all for it, so long as it involves me murdering things I guess.



The sylph is having none of that shit, though.



It seems that they want us to avoid armed conflict because of the already tense relations between the consortium and the beast tribes.



We must do it using Parley! Parley is terrible, but we'll get to that in a bit.



Next stop is eastern Thanlan, in other words back to the region we started in before they made us come all the way out to Gridania.



We're too meet up with a lalafell and two sylph already there for the negotiations.



Even though I left for Drybone immediately, Sammie got bored and went on ahead.



In a small cave to the south of Camp Drybone I find Sammie and the consortium members in question.



They attempt to turn us away for whatever reason, though.

It seems that a fight has broken out between two of the beast tribes! Not like that would stop me from walking right in.



After explaining that we're his reinforcements his mood changes though and he sends us right in.



Before we head in, though, he has the sylph cast some sort of magic spell on the beastmen.



The beastmen...don't appreciate it.



They try to convince the beastmen that their true enemies are the Garleans.



The beastmen just reply that they need those crystals to fuel their plans of war and in fact, turn violent toward the consortium members.



The goal of this mission is to stop that fighting.



They want you to do this through parley with the beastmen NPC leaders, a confusing mess of symbols that cause a status bar to go up or down depending on what you or the beastmen choose on your turns. This was intended as a way to let non-battle classes complete the story missions but it seems more than a little half-baked.



Essentially you can fill the bar up to the required level in a turn or two so long as you actually pay attention to what you pick.



Fill it to the required level in the given number of turns and the enemy...fades out of existence for whatever reason.



I'm fed up with diplomacy, though, and instead murder the shit out of the rest of the beastmen.



Despite my masterful parley the beastmen still bicker and fight amongst themselves.



The beastmen are done with diplomacy and say that they will fight alone, alongside their race and theirs alone.



I never knew Gridania was full of communists.



I guess it doesn't really matter if you play nice if you've got a god to feed that can destroy cities pretty readily.



Not that the beastmen would come after Gridania first. They seem more interested in sending their gods to have it out in some kind of catastrophic Pokemon battle.



Out of nowhere something approaches. The sylphs cast some sort of cloaking spell to prevent whatever from seeing us.



That "whatever" is an Asican, some sort of grim reaper style monster. This is the one and only time this monster ever appears and there is zero interaction with it. It doesn't show up as an area monster, a Notorious Monster or even a boss. No reason to be scared of it because as far as I'm concerned it doesn't exist.



It wanders off, serving just as some sort of grim portent of the unimplemented future. Oh, and we failed to accomplish what we set out to do here as well.



The sylph are more concerned with making peace than getting crystals, though.



Its interesting to note that "primals" is the normal term for the summoned beasts and "eikons" is the derogatory Garlean slang for them.

After all this Sammie is still skeptical that the primals even exist, much less roam the realm. The sylph get really angry over this.



Nananoby has had enough of the philosophical debate, though and vents at how bad the relations in the crystal trade have gotten.



It seems there's another deposit of crystals at Silvertear Falls, but the Garleans have control of it.



Before heading out, though, we find a big bag of crystals that the beastmen dropped in their haste to avoid the Ascian. Score!



We return to Gridania for our reward. Sammie, of course, embellishes the story a bit.



It seems that Silvertear Falls is up in Mor Dhona and filled to the brim with crystals. In addition to the Garlean problem mentioned earlier, though, its also got a ton of high level (nearly double the player level cap) monster running around. In other words, the consortium are a bunch of wimps.



And there's our reward! I swapped out to Conjuror before this so as the huge exp reward wouldn't go to waste.

Next time: Going to Mor Dhona Anyway!

11/16/2012 - Crystal Farming



Back to home base, the mission guy doesn't have any idea what's going on.



Luckily Sammie shows up just in time to point me in the right direction.



It seems the Sylph are concerned over the lack of response from the usual Ixali traders.



They're convinced that collecting unaspected crystals from Mor Dhona (aka hell on earth) is the answer to their problems and send us on our way.



Sammie isn't thrilled, but she leaves the decision up to me.



Luckily, we only have to collect 5 of the crystals since we decide to split up.



The Sylph try to work their way into our traveling party but Sammie immediately shoots them down.



Yeah, I wonder why anyone would turn down an offer of help from a glass eyed floating Cabbage Patch doll.



This quest involves finding 5 (fairly random) spots in northeastern Mor Dhona, burying some crystals and then coming back for them after a while when they become unaspected. Not really exciting Let's Play material.



A short time later I've got all 5, its time to head back to town.



The Sylph seem overly excited about the crystal delivery.



Sammie is once again complaining about our tasks.



Sylph counters with a sick burn.



Sammie counters with biting sarcasm.



They send us on our way back to Ul'dah, but Sammie prods them for more information before we go. It seems that none of the beast tribes were able to summon their respective primal without the intervention of some "Paragons."



In the letter they send to the Ixali, the Sylph begged for the chance to meet these Paragons. They want to convince them somehow that summoning the primals is a bad move.

Sammie wishes them luck before we depart for Ul'dah once more.



Minfilia has called for some kind of informatory meeting for all of the newer members of The Twelve.



It seems that the Empire is distributing some kind of propaganda linkpearls with some unsettling news.



Talk of war is spreading. Minfilia recounts the tale of how the Empire took the city of Ala Mhigo ten years prior with little effort and then mysteriously withdrew their advancing forces before reaching Ul'dah and the other city states.



The linkpearls state that the beastmen of Eorzea are summoning their primals and preparing for war.



But the Garleans offer their protection from the coming primal assaults.

(As someone who knows already how this shakes out as of writing this, this is kind of a hilarious claim.)



Sammie always knows how to bring a conversation back to sexual innuendo. She's not happy about the prospects of Garlean rule regardless.



It seems like Minfilia is more open to dialog with the Garleans. She asks that we investigate their claims before dismissing them outright.



...even if the Garleans look down on us like animals for being able to communicate with the beastmen.